Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) Shares Bought by Barclays PLC

Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) by 247.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,308 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 16,595 shares during the period. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Equity Bancshares were worth $953,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in shares of Equity Bancshares in the third quarter worth $2,809,000. State Street Corp grew its stake in Equity Bancshares by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 314,889 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,919,000 after purchasing an additional 8,103 shares in the last quarter. PDT Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Equity Bancshares during the 3rd quarter worth about $282,000. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in Equity Bancshares by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 37,735 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,543,000 after purchasing an additional 1,481 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in shares of Equity Bancshares by 7.8% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 3,213 shares of the bank’s stock worth $131,000 after buying an additional 232 shares in the last quarter. 71.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on EQBK. Stephens raised shares of Equity Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $46.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, October 14th. DA Davidson raised their price target on Equity Bancshares from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Equity Bancshares from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Equity Bancshares Stock Up 3.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:EQBK opened at $41.91 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.67. Equity Bancshares, Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.44 and a twelve month high of $50.85. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company has a market capitalization of $640.80 million, a PE ratio of 38.10 and a beta of 0.92.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The bank reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $55.35 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.77 million. Equity Bancshares had a net margin of 6.36% and a return on equity of 13.53%. On average, equities analysts predict that Equity Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Equity Bancshares’s payout ratio is currently 54.55%.

About Equity Bancshares

Equity Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Equity Bank that provides a range of banking, mortgage banking, and financial services to individual and corporate customers. The company accepts various demand, savings, money market, and time deposits. Its loan products include commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, commercial lines of credit, working capital, term, equipment and aircraft financing, acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, real estate construction, homebuilder, agricultural, government guaranteed, and other loan products.